Journal of Language and communication
PRONUNCIATION PEDAGOGY: PRACT ICE AND POLICY IN KENYA
By
Manyasi N. Beatrice (PhD)
Maasai Mara University, P.0. Box 861- 20500, Narok, Kenya
Email:beatomanyasi@yahoo.com; Cell phone: +254721883793
The purpose of the study was to find out how English language teachers’ knowledge of
pronunciation pedagogy affects their classroom practice. The specific objectives of the study
were: to find out language approaches used to teach pronunciation and to establish how teachers’
mastery of pronunciation facilitates acquisition of the sounds by learners. The findings revealed
that teachers of English had challenges as role models when teaching pronunciation hindering
mastery of English sounds by learners. Some of their pronunciation was not comprehensible
distorting meaning. They used imitation, phonetic transcriptions, minimal pair drills and sentence
drills to teach pronunciation. It was established that some of them had pronunciation difficulties
affecting the intelligibility or comprehensibility of what they were communicating about. There
is no need to achieve native like pronunciation, but they should enable learners to surpass the
threshold level so that their pronunciation does not distort the meaning of what they are
communicating. When a teacher who is meant to be a role model and source of input for learners
uses incomprehensible pronunciation distorting meaning, it is a significant setback to English
Language Teaching. There is need to reassess policies concerning who should be trained to teach
English in Kenya. Attaining a certain mean grade in the subject may not be enough.
Key Words: English Language, Pronunciation Pedagogy, and policy
Journal of Language and communication
PRONUNCIATION PEDAGOGY: PRACT ICE AND POLICY IN KENYA
By
Manyasi N. Beatrice (PhD)
Lecturer, Maasai Mara University, School of Arts and Social Sciences, P.0. Box 861- 20500,
Narok, Kenya
Email:beatomanyasi@yahoo.com; Cell phone: +254721883793
The purpose of the study was to find out how English language teachers’ knowledge of
pronunciation pedagogy affects their classroom practice. The specific objectives of the study
were: to find out language approaches used to teach pronunciation and to establish how teachers’
mastery of pronunciation facilitates acquisition of the sounds by learners. The findings revealed
that teachers of English had challenges as role models when teaching pronunciation hindering
mastery of English sounds by learners. Some of their pronunciation was not comprehensible
distorting meaning. They used imitation, phonetic transcriptions, minimal pair drills and sentence
drills to teach pronunciation. It was established that some of them had pronunciation difficulties
affecting the intelligibility or comprehensibility of what they were communicating about. There
is no need to achieve native like pronunciation, but they should enable learners to surpass the
threshold level so that their pronunciation does not distort the meaning of what they are
communicating. When a teacher who is meant to be a role model and source of input for learners
uses incomprehensible pronunciation distorting meaning, it is a significant setback to English
Language Teaching. There is need to reassess policies concerning who should be trained to teach
English in Kenya. Attaining a certain mean grade in the subject may not be enough.
Key Words: English Language, Pronunciation Pedagogy, and policy
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Mastery of language, particularly English as a second language in Kenya is one of the most
important life skills that learners need to acquire and perfect at secondary school level. English
Language Teaching in Kenya adopts an integrated approach. The teaching of the four language
skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, plus the subsidiary skills of grammar and
Journal of Language and communication
punctuation are done using the integrated approach. The Integrated English Language course is
designed to ensure that listening and speaking skills are taught through comprehensions, poems,
conversations or sentences to be read aloud (K.I.E., 2002). Oral narratives taught under these
skills constitute the listening comprehension passages and are only found in the teachers’ guide
books. The teacher is therefore expected to read the oral narratives aloud as the students listen.
Correct pronunciation is fundamental for the learners to get the right meaning of what is read.
Other English language sounds to be taught are integrated in literary materials such as poems and
passages. The teacher is expected to read some parts aloud to act as a role model to the learners.
Therefore, teachers’ knowledge of pronunciation pedagogy is significant.
English functions as a second language in Kenya. It first came to the country in the 19th century,
when the British colonized the territory. In 1895, the British declared Kenya a protectorate and in
1920 it became a British colony. At the time of colonization, Swahili had already been
established as a trade language in most parts of the East African coast and it was also used in
education. English is the official language in Kenya, while Swahili enjoys the status of the
national language. Both languages function as lingua francas, yet English enjoys a greater
prestige and it serves more functions than Swahili. English is used for administration, business,
diplomacy, legal, education and media. It is the medium of instruction in schools from grade four
onwards in rural areas, and in urban areas even from grade one onwards. Since Kenyans mainly
acquire English through school, knowledge of English is associated with literacy. Passing well in
the subject is a prerequisite for admission to competitive university and middle level courses. It
is therefore a policy in Education that English is a compulsory subject from grade one to
secondary schools in Kenya. Those who pursue other careers in colleges and universities learn
through English (KIE, 2002).
Journal of Language and communication
Kenyan English has a number of characteristics at the levels of phonology, grammar, lexicon and
discourse. Pronunciation of the English sounds ought not be native like, intelligibility or
comprehensibility should be the threshold as it facilitate among different individuals. Given that
the language is mainly acquired through formal education, the researcher sought to establish
teachers of English mastery of English sounds and how effective they are as role models to
learners.
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
Pedagogy in education involves the entire process a teacher goes through from instructional
planning, classroom practice to evaluation. In this paper, pronunciation pedagogy has been
operationalized to mean approaches for teaching pronunciation and how teachers’ mastery of
pronunciation of the English sounds facilitate acquisition of the sounds by learners.
2.1. Communicative Language Teaching
Communicative Language Teaching is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching,
rather than as a teaching method with a clearly defined set of classroom practices David Nunan,
(1991). It has the following five features:

An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language.

The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.

The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on
the learning process itself.

An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing
elements to classroom learning. language activities outside the classroom.
These five features are claimed by practitioners of CLT to show that they are very interested in
the needs and desires of their learners as well as the connection between the language as it is
Journal of Language and communication
taught in their class and as it used outside the classroom. An attempt to link classroom
language learning with Communicative Language Teaching often takes the form of pair and
group work requiring negotiation and cooperation between learners, fluency-based activities
that encourage learners to develop their confidence, role-plays in which students practise and
develop language functions, as well as judicious use of grammar and pronunciation focused
activities (Richards and Rodgers, 2001). Classroom activities used in communicative language
teaching include: role-play, interviews, games, language exchanges, surveys, pair-work and
learning by teaching.
However, not all courses that utilize the Communicative Language approach will restrict their
activities solely to these. Some courses will have the students take occasional grammar quizzes,
or prepare at home using non-communicative drills, for instance.
2.2 APPROACHES FOR TEACHING PRONUNCIATION
2.2.1 An Analytic - Linguistic Approach
Such an approach utilizes information and tools such as a phonetic alphabet, articulator
descriptions, charts of the vocal apparatus, contrastive information, and other aids to supplement
listening, imitation, and production. It explicitly informs the learner of and focuses attention on
the sounds and rhythms of the target language. Pronunciation is taught through intuition and
imitation; students imitate a model, the teacher or a recording and do their best to approximate
the model through imitation and repetition (Cele-Murcia, 2007).
2.2.2 The Natural Approach
Proponents maintain that the initial focus on listening without pressure to speak gives the
learners the opportunity to internalize the target sound system. When learners do speak later on,
their pronunciation is supposedly quite good despite their never having received explicit
pronunciation instruction (Richards and Rodgers, 2001).
Findings of phonetics should be applied to language teaching. Teachers must have solid training
in phonetics. (4)Learners should be given phonetic training to establish good speech habits.
Pronunciation is very important and is taught explicitly from the start (as in the Direct Method
classroom, the teacher / recording models a sound, a word, or an utterance and the students
Journal of Language and communication
imitate or repeat). The teacher also makes use of information from phonetics, such as a visual
transcription system (modified IPA or some other system ) or charts that demonstrate the
articulation of sounds. (3) the teacher often uses a technique derived from the notion of contrast
in structural linguistics: the minimal pair drill
– drills that use words that differ by a single sound in the same position. e.g.,
sheep –ship
green –grin
Types of minimal -pair training
(a )Word drills :
sheep –ship
green – grin
(b) Sentence drills
Sentence drills uses either syntagmatic drills or paradigmatic drills.
Syntagmatic drills means contrast within a sentence such as:
Don’t sit in that seat.
Did you at least get the list?
Paradigmatic drills means contrast across two sentences such as:
Don't slip on the floor. (It’s wet.)
Don't sleep on the floor. (It’s cold.)
2.2.3 The Communicative Approach
It is currently dominant in language teaching and it holds that since the primary purpose of
language is communication, using language to communicate should be central in all classroom
activities. This focus on language as communication brings renewed urgency to the teaching of
pronunciation, since both empirical and anecdotal evidence indicates that there is a NB.
Threshold level of pronunciation for non- native speakers of English ( in this paper it is guided
by intelligibility) ; if they fall below this threshold level, they will have oral communication
problems no matter how excellent and extensive their control of English grammar and
Journal of Language and communication
vocabulary might be. There are four groups of English language learners whose oral
communication needs mandate a high level of Intelligibility and therefore require special
assistance with pronunciation: foreign
teaching assistants and sometimes foreign faculty in colleges and universities in English
speaking countries. International business people and diplomats who need to use English as their
working lingua franca. Refugees in resettlement and vocational training programs wishing to
relocate to English speaking countries. Teachers of English who are not native speakers and are
expected to serve as role models and source of input for their students. People in non-English
speaking countries working as tour guides, waiters, hotel Personnel who use English for dealing
with visitors who do not speak their language.
The goal of teaching pronunciation to such learners is not to make them sound like native
speakers of English but to enable learners to surpass the threshold level so that their
Pronunciation will not distort their intended meaning. Having established that intelligible
pronunciation is necessary for oral communication, teachers of English need the required
threshold to be effective in ELT.
3.0 METHODOLOGY
The study used the qualitative research methodology which investigates how things happen in
education It generates and analyzes holistic data on an issue ensuring trustworthiness in the
research process (Jwan and Ong’ondo, 2011). It uses a relatively small number of cases
considered in terms of details.
The paradigm was appropriate for the study because the
researcher could gather in-depth understanding of
language approaches used to teach
Journal of Language and communication
pronunciation to facilitate mastery of English sounds and to establish how teachers’ mastery of
pronunciation
facilitate
acquisition
of
the
sounds
by
learners.
Due to their real – life setting, qualitative research is more reality based hence the researcher
found out the reality as concerns teachers of English as role models in teaching pronunciation in
Kenya. Ethnography method was used during the study. It emphasizes the importance of
studying at firsthand what people do and say in particular contexts (Jwan and Ong’ondo, 2011).
It involves a researcher participating in people’s lives for an extended period of time observing,
listening, asking questions through formal and informal interviews (Hammersley and Artkinson,
2007). The study used the selective intermittent time mode. It is a very flexible approach; the
frequency of the research site visits is determined by the researcher’s own programs (Pole and
Morrison, 2003). English language is taught every day in secondary schools in Kenya; however,
the researcher made prior arrangements with the teachers based on their instructional planning to
only visit the schools when they were teaching pronunciation.
Qualitative researchers use non-probability sampling. The aim is not to make statistical
generalization but to create knowledge by understanding the particular in depth. It uses small
samples that do not have to be representative of a target population (Cohen, 2007; Lichtman,
2006). The researcher therefore used purposive sampling to select thirty two trained teachers of
English. Teachers Service Commission return forms were used to select schools with the most
number of trained teachers of English and literature. Setting being important in qualitative
studies, one national school, extra county and two district schools were selected to vary setting
then teachers in those schools formed the sample size of thirty two teachers.
Journal of Language and communication
To observe research ethics, the researcher requested the participants’ consent before recording
interviews. There was no inducement of participants to participate in the study. Anonymity of
the schools and teachers was ensured. In qualitative research, data is made up of words. The
technique used to generate data was informal interviews. Yin (2009) asserts that qualitative
researchers ought to analyze data by looking at it, assigning categories, and coding merging
social issues into themes relevant to the research questions. Data was analyzed qualitatively and
reported in narration according to emerging themes as per the research questions formulated
from the study objectives.
Qualitative researchers advocate for naturalistic generalizations where similarity of contexts or
cases is a major factor. Findings can be generalized to other cases that are similar with the ones
in the study (Stake, 2005). However, such studies can lead to ‘fuzzy generalizations.’ It is a
logical argument in cases that are representing schools such as the ones in the study because of a
number of similarities revealed by the generated data. All cases have a similar curriculum,
similar recommended course books to be used, similar teaching and testing syllabus to be
implemented and similar teachers with regard to training. Generalization is left to policy makers
and other researchers to decide whether issues discussed could be of value to what they might be
dealing with.
4.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Approaches Used to Teach Pronunciation
4.1.1 The Communicative Approach
Journal of Language and communication
Teachers used The Communicative Approach when teaching English. It was the central language
in all classroom activities and communication. As discussed earlier, such an approach focuses on
language as communication (Richards and Rodgers, 2001), hence making it necessary to teach
pronunciation to deal with errors that may affect the comprehensibility of what is communicated.
One of the features of the communicative approach is the Introduction of authentic texts into the
learning situation. Based on this feature, teachers used oral narratives, comprehension passages
and poems as sources of their pronunciation teaching and learning activities.
They also used Integrated Language Teaching Approach, integrating the language skills:
listening, speaking reading and writing; and integrating language and literature. Students were
involved in activities such as; writing words that had similar pronunciation with some in the
listening materials such as oral narratives, comprehension passages and poems. Oral narratives
were read by the teacher aloud as students listened. The teacher read aloud some parts of the
poems and passages to act as a role model to learners in pronouncing certain sounds.
4.1.2. Analytic Linguistic Approach
Teachers of English used phonetic transcription as well as reading phonetically transcribed texts
as students imitated them. Some of the transcribed words were:
Man
Lad
Gas
Calf
Hard
Rough
Food
Could
Gate
Late
Short
Torn
Some
Aloud
Anger
Allow
Cut
Herd
Pleasure
Shout
The transcription targeted different consonant and vowel sounds as per the curriculum.
Journal of Language and communication
However, some teachers had challenges when pronouncing some consonant sounds depending
on their first language. It resulted in variations in pronunciation. For example the following
variations were noted when pronouncing the definite article ‘the.’
Table 1: Variations in Pronouncing ‘the’
English article
Teachers
varied
pronunciations
The
Te
Tse
De
The variations depended on whether the teachers’ first language used voiced sounds, voiceless
sounds or both. In some cases, there was a mismatch between the transcribed word and the
teacher’s pronunciation.
4.1.2 Minimal pair drills were used by teachers. The aim was to help students distinguish
between similar and problematic sounds in the target language through listening discrimination
and spoken practice. Teachers used word level drills and sentence level drills. Students listened
to the teacher provided model and repeated the sounds that were being taught.
This technique should be enhanced by the use of tape recorders, language labs, and video
recorders (Cele-Murcia, 2007). None of the teachers had the teaching and learning resources.
Some of the word level drills used were:
Shell
Shave
She
Shame
Ship
Shoot
Shoe
Shop
sell
save
see
same
sip
soot
sue
soap
Sheet
Show
Peak
Leave
Least
Seat
They also used sentence- level drills; both paradigmatic and syntagmatic.
sit
sow
pick
live
list
sit
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4.2 Teachers’ Mastery of Pronunciation to Facilitate Acquisition of the Sounds by Learners
Classroom observation during English language teaching was used to establish whether teachers
mastery of pronunciation facilitate learners’ acquisition of English sounds. The teachers had the
following Pronunciation challenges despite the fact that they were expected to be role models.
Table 2: Adding of ‘N’ in Some Words
Pronunciation In English
Teacher’s Pronunciation
Going
Charger
Down
Dog
Girl
Ngoing
Charnger
Ndown
Ndog
Ngirl
Table 3: Adding of Letter M in Some Words
Pronunciation In English
Teacher’s Pronunciation
Bounce
Boy
Box
Boat
Back
Mbounce
Mboy
Mbox
Mboat
Mback
Table4: Replacing Letter ‘R’ With ‘L’ and Vice Versa
Pronunciation In English
Teacher’s Pronunciation
Running
Reading
Reality
Ignorance
Environment
Lunning
Leading
Learity
Ignolance
Envilonment
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Table 5: Adding Letter ‘M’ Before Words
Pronunciation In English
Teacher’s Pronunciation
Bus
Baby
Body
Bake
Birth
Mbus
Mbaby
Mboby
Mbake
Mbirth
Table 6: Replacing Letter ‘F’ With Letter ‘V’ and Vice Versa
Pronunciation In English
Teacher’s Pronunciation
Father
Fertile
Fake
Vase
Versatile
Vather
Vertile
Vake
Face
Fersatile
Table 7: Replacing ‘Sh’ With ‘Ch’ and Vice Versa
Pronunciation In English
Teacher’s Pronunciation
Sheep
Shake
Shop
Cheep
Chake
Chop
Table 8: Repacing Letter ‘R’with ‘L’ And Vice Versa
Pronunciation In English
Teacher’s Pronunciation
Ruler
Hill
Reckless
Liver
Luler
Hirr
Lecress
River
Rook
Look
Journal of Language and communication
Table 9: Replacing Letter ‘B’ With ‘P’
Pronunciation In English
Teacher’s Pronunciation
Boy
Book
Box
Boat
Bond
Ben
Poy
Pook
Pox
Poat
Pond
Pen
Table 10: They Replace the Letter ‘T’ With ‘D’
Pronunciation In English
Teacher’s Pronunciation
During
Duck
Dog
Dump
Doctor
Doom
Turing
Tuck
Tog
Tump
Toctor
Toom
Table 11: Letter ‘D’ With ‘T’
Pronunciation In English
Teacher’s Pronunciation
Desk
Deputy
Disk
Director
Diamond
Tesk
Teputy
Tisk
Tirector
Tiamond
Tables 2 to table 11 prove that some teachers of English do not meet the threshold of who should
teach English in Kenya as a second language. They transfer such errors to students because
learners view them as role models. They also distort the meaning of the intended message, for
example, instead of saying;
Journal of Language and communication
Mary ate rice and liver, they say, Mary ate lice and river. Such statements are incomprehensible.
In cases where there are no equivalent English words, one could approximate meaning, such as,
pronouncing running as ‘lunning.’ When mispronunciation creates another English word, it
distorts meaning completely, for example, the words in the first column may be pronounced as
the words in the second column.
Reading leading
Vase
face
River
liver
Shop
chop
Rice
lice
Bond
pond
5.0 CONCLUSION
As discussed earlier, curriculum developers in Kenya emphasize on using CLT approach in teaching
English language in secondary schools. Teachers of English were assumed to be role models in
teaching pronunciation. They used imitation, phonetic transcriptions, minimal pair drills and
sentence drills to teach pronunciation. It was established that some of them had pronunciation
challenges affecting the intelligibility or comprehensibility of what they were communicating
about. Comprehensible pronunciation is one of the necessary components of oral
communication. Teachers of English lack teaching and learning resources such as tape recorders,
language labs, and video recorders to enhance teaching pronunciation. They are expected to
serve as role models and source of input to their students. There is no need to achieve native like
pronunciation, but they should enable learners to surpass the threshold level so that their
pronunciation does not distort the meaning of what they are communicating. When a teacher
who is meant to be a role model and source of input for learners uses incomprehensible
pronunciation distorting meaning, it is a significant setback to English Language Teaching
Journal of Language and communication
(ELT). There is need to reassess who should be trained to teach English in Kenya. Attaining a
certain mean grade and score in the subject may not be enough. The communicative language
teaching approach proposed to be used in ELT by the Kenya Institute of curriculum
Development emphasizes that language is communication, therefore comprehensible
pronunciation is important to facilitate the communication process both in the classroom and
outside the classroom.
6.0 IMPLICATION FOR POLICY

Teacher educators should come up with a policy concerning English Language Teacher
Education (ELTE) entry behavior that will facilitate English Language Teaching (ELT) in
Kenya; specifically, communication proficiency. Before admission of student teachers of
English, there should be an interview to test their pronunciation which should be
comprehensible, not necessarily native like.

The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) should prepare and provide
teaching and learning resources to teachers of English through county directors of education.
The communicative language teaching approach recommended by the KICD should be
enhanced by the use of tape recorders, language labs, and video recorders which the institute
should avail.

Quality Assurance and Standards Officers should ensure the availability of teaching and
learning resources to improve the quality of ELT in Kenya.
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